588 



GT.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 15 



FIG. 3. — VIEW INSIDE THE HONEY-HOUSE. 



A, uncapping-can (see page 515, Aug. 15); B, comb-box; C, 8-frame extract or; D, (1y-\vheelof 2 II. 1". two- 

 cycle Detroit engine; E, screen bottom for comb-box B; F, one of the four baskets wliicli exactly fill uncap- 

 ping-can A, and allow drainage in all directions; O, sliding bottom of basket, left loose to shove out uu- 

 cappings when the basket is taken out and inverted; I, small boiler with six one-incli (lues to generate 

 steam for the steam-heated uncapping-knives H, K; J, water-gauge on boiler. This cut shows an outfit 

 with which three men can uncap and extract medium thick honey at the rate of 1200 lbs. per hour. 



A LARGE HONEY-HOUSE ON WHEELS. FOR 

 OUT-APIARY WORK. 



Extracting Honey on a Wagon at the Rate of 1200 



lbs. per Hour; the Gravity Strainer Not 



a Success for Rapid Work. 



BY O. B. METCALFE. 



The honey-house on wheels, shown in the 

 accompanying ilkistrations, seems to me to 

 be a practical outfit for a large honey-pro- 

 ducer with several out-apiaries. We have 

 used it this season, and would not go back 

 to the ])lan of unloading and loading the 

 outfit at every yard. 



Fig. 1 shows an opening in the apron for 

 a gravity strainer; but we did not find the 

 gravity strainer satisfactory for our work. 

 If any one is figuring on making a gravity 

 strainer I think he would do well to set out 

 a tank of his honey, and time it to see how 

 long it takes to settle. If it takes ten liours 

 to settle as clear as he wants it, and he can 



use one that holds as much honey as his 

 extractor will throw running all the time in 

 ten hours, it will work. Otherwise the cur- 

 rent will be so swift that it will carry the 

 trash with it clear to the gate. That is, if I 

 am right in my understanding of the meth- 

 od, the tank must be large enough so that 

 a certain amount of honey coming from the 

 extractor must take as long to get to the 

 gate as it would have taken it to settle. I 

 mention this because, if I had read a simi- 

 lar statement, it would have saved me seven 

 dollars and a lot of time. 



A SPECIAL, BOILER FOR THE STEAM-KNIFE. 



We now endorse the steam-heated uncap- 

 ping-knife, but we could not use it for fast 

 work until I got to work and made a regu- 

 lar boiler with fines which would hold in a 

 pressure of ])erhaps two pounds. On trying 

 to use it at first we used a steam-tight buck- 

 et without Hues on a single-hole-burner gas- 

 oline-stove, but could not get heat enough 

 to carry the knife quickly through a solid 



